It's Never Too Late to Begin Again: Discovering Creativity and Meaning at Midlife and Beyond

Artist's Way

By: Julia Cameron, Emma Lively

Narrated by: Heather Henderson

“The book you hold in your hands is the distillate of a quarter century’s teaching. It is my attempt to answer, ‘What next?’ for students who are embarking on their ‘second act.’" - Julia Cameron

Julia Cameron has inspired millions with her best seller on creativity, The Artist’s Way. In It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again, she turns her eye to a segment of the population that, ironically, while they have more time to be creative, are often reluctant or intimidated by the creative process. Cameron tells listeners that retirement can, in fact, be the most rich, fulfilling, and creative time of their lives.

When someone retires, the newfound freedom can be quite exciting, but also daunting. The life that someone had has changed, and the life to come is yet to be defined. In this book, Cameron tells listeners how cultivating their creative selves can help them navigate this new terrain. She tells the inspiring stories of retirees who discovered new artistic pursuits and passions that more than filled their days - they nurtured their souls.

This 12-week course is aimed at defining - and creating - the life you want to have as you redefine and re-create yourself. This book includes simple tools that will guide and inspire you to make the most of this time in your life:

• Memoir writing offers an opportunity to reflect on and honor past experience - this book guides you through the daunting task of writing an entire memoir, breaking it down into manageable pieces
• Morning pages - private, stream-of-consciousness writing done daily - allow you to express wishes, fears, delights, resentments, and joys, which in turn, provide focus and clarity for the day at hand
• Artist dates encourage fun and spontaneity
• Solo walks quell anxiety and clear the mind

This fun, gentle, step-by-step process will help you explore your creative dreams, wishes, and desires...and help you quickly find that it’s never too late to begin again.

©2016 Julia Cameron (P)2018 Post Hypnotic Press Inc.

Narrator excels as does the book

I am a fan of Julia Cameron. That’s full disclosure. I already own the book and had started using it—I think it is excellent. This review is as much to praise the narrator. I would give her more stars if I could. Often professional readers “don’t get it” and their reading can be very stilted and formal. Ms. Henderson “gets it”. She reads this as if it was her own work. Get it and enjoy!

EXCELLENT! A MUST for ALL of us!

Like she says we are ALL Creative! I LOVE her work and feel you will too!

I really liked it.

Great book for motivation to make positive changes. It definitely helped me😊 even though I couldn't make myself do pages.

Cameron gives an added perspective to Artists Way

Looking for my lost self after motherhood and work that never seemed to stop, I bought a copy of The Artists Way. I could hardly get through it. I was too busy with the day to day to realize part of that day to day needed to be me taking care of my creativity. I did have outlets when not at work - cooking, hosting and catering parties large and small, flower arranging and gardens, childrearing and homemaking, volunteer work with local orgs. It is all creative but under a pressure to succeed or be judged, succeed or be passed over, succeed or ruin the lives of everyone around me. That is the power I thought I had over my world in a backward way of thinking about it. Now, 25 years later I am looking at the origninal book again and loving it. I saw this audible update and am back and forth between the two versions. Audible while at an exercise routine, and the print for reading at night or early a.m. to set my writing for the morning. Ah, Yes. You will write. You heard about "The Morning Pages" complemented by Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones book on writing. They are truly a gift for the creatively starved of any gender, age, or background. Life affirming and engaging in print or audible form. Our lives are spirals, not circles of the same thing, year over year, as calendars would make us think. We need to do, review, do again and move on and do, review and move on. These books are positive roadmaps with no ambition, no goal but to give us the tools to think about and do whatever we want. Good schooling on how to live a creative life. One regret is that the annecdotes tend to be of older, wealthy, retired individuals. That is likely her world. I overlook that. I don't dwell on the annecdotes, but enjoy the spirit of the next moves.

Great reminders

I have been a follower of Julia Cameron’s work since the first edition of the Artists Way it has helped me live my life with more purpose and happiness a very good program

Relevant and relaxing

This book helped me to focus on gratitude. I needed to understand and accept my creativity and rest on my Creator.

Only for Wealthy Retired People

If you are 40- or 50-something, still schleping your way through the bitch of life, this book is premature and will leave you frustrated and grieving over a retirement experience you will probably never have. I will put it on my digital shelf and see if it resonates with me in 15 years. Overall rating would be higher were it not for the misleading cover text and overview. Narration is good/professional and the writing solid.

Begin Again

Truly an inspirational book. Very comfoting. Helped me to see retirement in a new way.

Just retired!

For someone who just entered retired life, this book was very encouraging. Thanks so much, Julie!

PDF handout would be helpful

I’m apparently in the minority that found the narrator a little tough, she made me feel like a child in grade school. I also believe that the audiobook would greatly benefit from the addition of a PDF with the Tasks listed in order. The book itself is pretty good; I prefer this to to the Artist’s way.